Cobalt Demand

Some interesting changes happening in China regarding Cobalt.
It's quite a long story but has got me more interested in Cobalt as a resource.
Specifically most higher quality batteries from North Asia have used cobalt.

Last year and earlier this year China set out to improve battery quality.
In true China style a number of battery fires within China were blamed on the North Asians where in fact they were Chinese batteries. This was used as an excuse to block foreign batteries from Chinese EV subsidies.
It also blocked Panasonic from the Chinese market and caused a SP crash.
That brought Panasonic to the negotiating table and sure enough we then saw Panasonic building a new factory in the Dalian rust belt where unemployment is a real issues.

What appears to have transpired since then is that the Chinese now have the capacity to manufacture higher quality batteries that use Cobalt. Once they have it, it will then be passed around all major Chinese battery manufacturers. The hint that they now have the tech is that those previously "unsafe" batteries are now about to get the green light for use within China. Despite what many think price is not the issue for the CCP. Quality is an absolute number 1 priority before price considerations. They have a huge investment in new energy and cannot afford a failure.

If I am correct in the above assumptions then we are going to see a large surge on the use of Cobalt in 2017. For that reason I have been picking up BAR shares recently as I like the overall story. Lithium is my speciality so I'm still learning on Cobalt and just going by some basics. Let's hope we see a good news story next year.